Smith then worked in the biotechnology and pharmaceuticals industry for five years, and became Head of Policy and Government Relations for pharmaceutical corporation Pfizer in 2005. [12] After leaving Pfizer in September 2008, he joined Amgen, another pharmaceutical company.[12]

In 2006, while still Head of Policy and Government Relations for Pfizer, Smith fought the 2006 Blaenau Gwent by-election. At the time Smith said that Pfizer had been "extremely supportive" of his aspirations to public office.[12] Smith lost to independent candidate Dai Davies: Smith polled 37% of the vote while Davies polled 46.2%. During the by-election campaign, Smith spoke with Wales Online and expressed his support for the private sector playing a supportive role in the NHS, private finance initiative (PFI) schemes,[4] but has since described such schemes as a failure.[13]

On 27 June 2016, following the mass resignations from the Labour Shadow Cabinet after the British electorate narrowly voted in favour of leaving the European Union in the EU membership referendum, Smith announced he was stepping down as the Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. He resigned over concerns about the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, saying "It breaks my heart to say I cannot see how he can continue as leader."[19]

On 10 July 2016, Owen Smith claimed Corbyn and his allies were prepared to see the party split. He wrote on Twitter: "On July 27 I asked [Jeremy Corbyn] if he was prepared to see our party split & worse, wanted it to. He offered no answer".[20] He continued, "In the same meeting, in response to the same question [John McDonnell] shrugged his shoulders and said 'if that's what it takes'."[21][22]

On 13 July 2016, Smith announced his intention to stand as a candidate in the leadership ballot. He said that he supported many of Corbyn's policies but that Corbyn was "not a leader who can lead us into an election and win for Labour."[23] He suggested that the party's MPs or NEC could choose between him and Angela Eagle, so that only one of the two would go forward to a ballot. He postponed the scheduled official launch of his campaign in Pontypridd on 15 July following the Bastille Day attack in Nice, which he described as "heartbreaking".[24] In launching his campaign on 17 July, he called for a rewriting of Clause IV of the party's constitution to make a specific reference to tackling inequality, which he said should be "right at the heart of everything that we do".[25]

On 18 July 2016, Angela Eagle pulled out of the leadership race because she had approximately 20 fewer nominations than Smith. In an interview, Smith offered the following endorsement of the former contender: "Angela is a star in the Labour firmament. She will be at my right hand throughout this contest and if I am successful, Angela will be alongside me as my right hand woman."[26][27] He explained that his decision to run for leader was partly because the future of the Labour party was at risk, stating that the "possibility of split is dangerously real".[28]

On 24 September 2016, Corbyn defeated Smith at the Labour leadership election, securing 61.8% of the vote to Smith's 38.2%.[29]

Smith identifies as a democratic socialist.[30] In a July 2016 interview with The Guardian he stated, "I'm someone who believes that we live in a capitalist society and that the Labour Party is about trying to achieve socialism within that ... Ameliorating the situation, not overthrowing it by revolution."[13] In an interview with Channel 4 News, Smith specified his position as follows: "I am on the left of the Labour Party, I share many of Jeremy's values but I think I can talk about modernising those values".[31] He has named Nye Bevan, who served as Minister of Health (1945–1951) as his political hero.[32]

In regards to tax, Smith has promised to reverse cuts in Corporation Tax due to take place up until 2020 whilst reversing the cuts made to Capital Gains Tax and Inheritance Tax in the Summer Budget.[38]

At the launch of his party leadership campaign in July 2016, he proposed that £200,000,000 be invested to "rebuild Britain", defined by the BBC as "building new infrastructure and council housing".[31] He also suggested that income tax rates on the highest paid should be increased, with a top rate of 50%, claiming that recent party policy had been "too timid".[39] In an interview with The Guardian in mid-July, Smith said that housing – doubling the number of homes built – would be an important part of his platform.[40]

In late-July 2016, Smith pledged that, if elected as Leader of the Labour Party, he would ban zero-hour contracts and end the salary freeze for public sector workers, stating that "the public sector pay freeze cannot continue while the costs – of housing and heating, transport and childcare – continue to rise".[41][42] He said he would also reintroduce Wage Councils for hotel, shop and care workers, most of which were abolished during the 1980s and 1990s. He said about the councils that "I think there's a real case for re-inventing modern wage councils, operating sector by sector, looking at the specific terms and conditions in individual sectors and arguing for better terms and wages for workers in those sectors ... They are very powerful way in which you have an independent debate about the right wage levels and argue in that forum for better terms and conditions".[43][44]

In his 2016 leadership bid, Smith released proposals for policies aimed at improving workers' rights, such as a repeal of the "Trade Unions Act" and a commitment to ensure workers' representation on remuneration committees. Smith also proposed replacing the current Department of Work and Pensions with a new 'Ministry for Labour' and a revived Department for Social Security.[45][46]

Smith supported the campaign for the UK to remain in the European Union, at the referendum on Britain's membership in June 2016.[47] On 13 July 2016, following the vote to leave the EU, three weeks prior, he pledged that he would press for an early general election or offer a further referendum on the final 'Brexit' deal drawn up by the new Prime Minister, were he to be elected Labour leader.[48] He also said: "I don't think we should accept we're on a definite path out. I think we need to make sure people are satisfied".[39] According to The Guardian, Smith is in favour of a second referendum on "whatever Brexit deal May's team negotiates with the other 27 EU member states",[40] although a BBC report describes his position as "Would be 'tempted' to call a second EU referendum."[31] In November 2016 Smith stated he will vote against the invocation of Article 50 to commence Brexit negotiations, and reaffirmed he supported a second referendum on British withdrawal from the EU.[49][50] In the series of Parliamentary votes on Brexit in March 2019, Smith voted against the Labour Party whip and in favour of an amendment tabled by members of The Independent Group for a second public vote. [51]

After the referendum, Smith said that those who had voted to leave the EU had done so "because they felt a sense of loss in their communities, decline, cuts that have hammered away at vital public services and they haven't felt that any politicians, certainly not the politicians they expect to stand up for them, the Labour Party, has been standing up for them." His recommendation was to "put in place concrete policies that will bring real improvements to people's lives so I'm talking about a British New Deal for every part of Britain ..."[52]

During a speech in South Yorkshire in July 2016, he said he wanted to create a tax on the richest 1% in society, which would be at a rate of 15% on unearned income for earners over £150,000 a year, which would help to fund the NHS. He said that this would raise £3,000,000,000 for the health service. He then went on to say that he would give the NHS an extra 4% funding per year.[53][41]

When interviewed on the Today programme in July 2016, Smith revealed that he used to be a member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and "fundamentally wants the world to be without nuclear bombs."[54] He has described himself as being a "sceptic" of the Trident nuclear programme and as favouring a multilateralist approach to nuclear disarmament (a position he noted as being Bevanite).[55] In 2016, he stated that he would vote to renew Trident, saying: "I want a world without nuclear weapons altogether, but I don't think we hasten that by divesting."[39] Smith did vote in favour of the government's Trident renewal programme motion on 18 July 2016, as did another 139 Labour MPs, in line with long-standing party policy on at-sea nuclear deterrent.[56]

In 2006, Smith said while discussing the Iraq War that "I thought at the time the tradition of the Labour Party and the tradition of left-wing engagement to remove dictators was a noble, valuable tradition".[4] However, later during the same by-election campaign, in an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Smith argued that the invasion of Iraq was a mistake and "the world would have been a safer place if we hadn't done it."[57]

In December 2015, Smith sided with the Labour leadership by opposing the government's plans for military intervention in the Syrian Civil War.[59] He called for lessons to be learned from past intervention in the Middle East and a more diplomatic approach to be pursued instead.[60]